Hot diggity dog! From Harvest Meats to canola, food businesses are at heart of Yorkton

CBC's virtual road trip series Land of Living Stories explores the hidden gems across Saskatchewan. Reporter Janani Whitfield hit the road to Yorkton in search of inspiring stories of community spirit. This is the second of a three-part series from that community.

The business world isn't always easy, but when the slog starts getting Geoff Propp down, the president of Harvest Meats says he remembers the appreciation he and his staff get from customers. 

He shared the story of a man from the U.S. who was in the area camping and loved Harvest's product so much he contacted the company.

"He wrote this story about the heavens opening up when he ate his hot dogs. It was just hilarious," Propp said.

The family-started business has roots stretching back in Yorkton, Sask., and area to a century ago.

People driving by Yorkton may not realize this southeastern part of the province is home to several major agri-food businesses. Beyond Harvest Meats, there's Grain Millers, which operates a plant north of the city, and two giant canola crushing plants, one each owned by Louis Dreyfus Company and Richardson International.

Both canola plants are expanding, with the LDC company also adding a pea processing plant to make pea protein for meat alternatives.

"There's more construction on that job site than I've ever seen in this area in my life. It's hundreds of millions of dollars of investments," Propp said.

He noted there are strategic reasons the Yorkton area is good for these businesses, starting with the presence of east-west railway lines, a large amount of available land and access to a huge amount of groundwater through the Assiniboia river basin. That water is critical to his own business and even more of a factor for canola crushing operations.

Early beginnings as meat market

Harvest Meats's history with Yorkton is tied to family roots. Propp's great-great-grandfather started a meat business in the early 1900s, moving the meat market to Yorkton in 1928. His sons expanded the business with a meat processing facility and branded the products as "Harvest." In 1997, the family made the choice to sell the business to try to grow it into a national brand. 

Now Harvest employs more than 300 staff. Propp attributes the products' quality to the long-time loyal employees. They're quick to tell him if something doesn't taste or look right, or hit what they believe are quality markers, after years of being with the business.

"That kind of feedback is just invaluable. You can teach it, but it's almost generational," he said.

David Harris, a long-time employee and production manager, backed that sentiment up.

"We always use the best raw materials to make the product and we haven't changed that over the years."

As Yorkton and Saskatchewan have changed, so has the Harvest workforce. Harris said he's worked with people from as far and wide as Germany to the Philippines at the plant.

Propp said those employees drive his focus to keep the business going.

"We tell our people all the time not to take what we have for granted, because it can turn on a dime in a hurry," he said, adding that losing a key customer or a recall could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

"You can basically lose your business overnight in this industry. That's the kind of stuff that really keeps us up at night, but also keeps us motivated to our very best at what we do day in and day out."